Monroe & Government in 1784
Monroe & Government in 1785
Monroe & Government in 1786
In the winter of 1783-84 the Congress of the United States Confederation
met in Annapolis, and Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe
got to know each other better as they shared lodgings.
Monroe would serve in that Congress for three years.
Monroe had received 5,000 acres in Kentucky
for his service in the War for Independence,
and later he got patents for 100,000 acres in the West.
The Congress of the Confederation on 7 May 1784 chose Thomas Jefferson
to join the diplomats Benjamin Franklin and John Adams in Paris, France.
Before leaving, Jefferson offered to sell many books in French to Monroe
who
wrote
seven letters to him between May 14 and June 1 before Jefferson embarked on July 5.
This is the letter Monroe wrote to Jefferson on May 14:
I hope before this you have safely arrived in Philadelphia.
I very sensibly feel your absence not only in the
solitary situation in which you have left me
but upon many other accounts.
What direction the delegation may take even for the short
space that we shall remain here, upon the few important
subjects that are before us, is to me altogether uncertain.
The same men still act on the same principles and upon
points where no personal objects are in view on either side,
accommodation on the part of those gentlemen is
if possible more difficult to be attained.
As I have not been able to finish our cypher,
I can only give you an account of one or two measures.
By the next post I will send it and before your departure
give you information of whatever has or may happen.
We have appointed Col. Humphrey’s secretary
to the Embassy or commission.
The report upon taking possession of the
western posts has been before Congress.
Hand moved for its postponement to take up
a plan of his, more concise, but not very explicit.
His plan is to dismiss the troops at West Point and elsewhere and
enlist others for this service which
he supposes may be effected in a very few weeks and in
time to serve the purpose of the Indian commissioners.
I wish you to inform me what posts you
think troops had better be stationed at.
I recollect you had thought on this subject and made some
amendment in the plan proposed by General Washington.
I am rather an advocate for the dismission of these
troops for a variety of reasons which will occur to
you, and if the levy of others can be effected in
time for the western purposes think the
difficulty you had in the winter will be removed.
I have sent your trunks by the packet to Baltimore and
instructed the master of the packet to deliver them himself.
I have also forwarded your letter to Mr. Curson.
Do you recollect anything further here that I should
attend to besides those you gave me in charge.
Everything relative to the negotiations are completed so that
you will of course receive the instructions immediately.
I think you left town before a particular
clause had received its negative.
It was the only one which remained undecided on so that
you will comprehend me without my particularizing it.1
Monroe discovered that Virginia delegates wanted Georgetown to become
the national capital, and on 25 May 1784 in a letter to Jefferson he wrote,
I received this moment yours of the 21st.
My letter by the last post will inform you of the occasion
which pointed that as the favorable moment for a trip
to Georgetown and of our availing ourselves of it.
Yesterday evening we returned.
Our report will be in favor of the Maryland
side and of a position near the town.
Upon our return we found that business
had been conducted as we expected.
The affair of Rhode Island had not been settled till Monday
(yesterday) and that in a very extraordinary way.
I informed you whence the motion for inquiry originated
and I believe of the warmth with which it was conducted.
I never saw more indecent conduct in any assembly before.
The dispute was more pointed between Mercer and Howell.
After exhausting each other, the earnest desire to proceed
to business existing with the other part of Congress
prevailed and this consideration being forced to give
way to that, Mercer and Read had only the alternative
of withdrawing or putting their protest upon the journals.
Virginia and South Carolina stand I hear for as yet
I have seen nothing formally entered in protest
against the continuance of these delegates or
their right to vote under their present authority.
I am told this is in the name of the delegations
on behalf of their respective States.
What has this business to do with Virginia or Virginia with it
more than any other state in the U. S. and wherefore is
she brought so intemperately and actively on the failed?
Today we resume (I am informed) the
consideration of the western posts.
What will be the result is uncertain.
New York I hear will put restraint on every
measure till she attains the object of her
memorial or statement handed in before you left us.
Other states will be perhaps for doing nothing
and some persons who cannot perhaps attain
what they wish may attempt to mar the whole.
We have now only 8 days before the adjournment
so that the prospect of effecting these
and other objects before us is unfavorable.
My last letter gave you the balance of what
Mr. Jenifer informed me from his memory
for he had no memorandum about him
and the post admitted not of delay, which I paid him.
I understood the whole was for yourself
and transmitted it to you in bank bills except 3 or 4
dollars for which I could not procure a bill.
By your letter I am inclined to suspect I have been mistaken
and that I should have given the balance to Mr. Hardy,
but this or any other mistake you will please to rectify
and give me the necessary information and let me do it.
I shall go instantly upon the business of your other
commands, forward if not yet gone your instructions &c.
and will attempt giving you powers to negotiate with France
if you have them not, but I supposed you had, for so I think
it was reported, and I do not recollect that it was negatived.
It is certainly necessary something should be done
respecting the restraint on tobacco in France, to extricate it
from the monopoly of the farmers General contrary in my
opinion to the spirit of the treaty, but I am not sufficiently
informed on this subject to take it up and wish your advice.
The cypher I find is imperfect.
I have only used it for the present purpose.
It appears to me only to want one to write by and in
that case we may remedy the inconvenience in private.
Otherwise I will make a new one and forward it by
Mr. Lucerne or some other gentleman of distinction.
I shall write you constantly as well
before you quit the continent as after.
I have the pleasure to inform you that I have
information from Mr. Jones that the facilities will
eventually be of as great convenience to our State
as any in the Union, and that their admission is
considered as a great easement to the State.2
This is what Monroe wrote to Jefferson on June 1:
I have been favored with yours of the 25
by the last post with its enclosures
and will pay due attention to the contents.
Two points have been effected since my last, the putting the
office of finance into commission and establishment of the
committee of the States and appointment of the members.
Each State nominated its own member,
and Congress confirmed the preference.
The committee consists of Mr. Blanchard, Dana, Ellery,
Sherman, DeWitt, Dick, Hand, Chase, Hardy, Spaight and
Read; for the States not represented on the floor any
member who produces credentials may take his seat.
The members also may relieve each other at pleasure.
These resolutions were introduced by Mercer and supported
by Read, by which the appointment, if this rule continues
(longer than the present Congress or rather committee),
is taken out of the hands of Congress and vested in the
delegation of each State and of course given it to
whomever the chance of a popular vote may place
at the head of a delegation, for those who pay a
delicate attention to the sense of the State must take
that sense from such evidence as appears to them.
The powers of the committee are confined
so that no injury can be effected.
Sherman and Dana will necessarily govern it.
Read and Spaight will be together.
Hardy will perhaps be of the same society and as
the part they will act will perhaps be rather an
intemperate one, they will have no weight themselves
and throw the indifferent states into the other scale.
I shall sit out a day or two after the adjournment
for Virginia and propose if possible to effect the purchase of
the land from Markes and if necessary will go to Albemarle.
I intend also to put in execution the plan I had
in view of visiting the western country if no
difficulties arise upon my arrival in Virginia.
You will please direct your letters for me to
Fredericksburg through whomever you think proper here.
I shall hurry Mr. Short on if he comes by Annapolis
but suspect he hath passed by Baltimore before this.
I shall write you by the next post after the
adjournment of Congress and give you
information of our ultimate proceedings.
The western posts are still before us and will
probably receive their final arrangement tomorrow.
The plan (the two points having passed by the vote of 7
States, the whole being considered as one ordinance)
to send 350 of the troops from West point
immediately to take possession of the posts,
and to raise 700 men to supply their places.
I think it will pass.
The collection of Militia stores, arrangement &c.
will be put under the direction of General Knox.3
On July 20 Monroe wrote this letter to Jefferson:
By Mr. Short I have the pleasure to forward you a more
complete cypher in which we will correspond in future.
He will find you I hope safely arrived in Paris and
recovered from the fatigues of your voyage, and
situated with Miss Patsy agreeably to your wish.
In my letters from Annapolis I informed you of
the latter proceedings of Congress, and as I
addressed them to Boston hope you received them.
Mr. Madison, whom I saw lately at Richmond, will
give you the proceedings of the Assembly:
three important objects have I find employed
their attention, the enlarging the powers of Congress,
regulation of the commerce of the State and the
recommendations of Congress under the treaty.
Their resolutions in the first instance
I enclosed to you for Boston.
In the 2nd they have established a port on each river,
to which they have restricted the vessels of foreign nations,
in the reception and unloading of their cargoes.
They have deferred the commencement of the
operation of this law to the expiration of two years in
the expectation that the craft necessary for the river
carriage will be prepared by that time, so that from the
commencement it may effect no injury to the people.
But this I think a visionary hope.
Those who otherwise would turn their attention to the
subject will think it too uncertain an event to calculate on,
and the operation of the law will find not a single vessel
prepared to supply the exigency it will require.
From this circumstance I fear a repeal will be attempted;
I hope however it will fail and that this is only a step
to a more wise and mature system of policy.
If so many ports are admitted will the objects of
the State be attained, or on the contrary will they
not serve as subsidiary to Baltimore and the other
towns on the continent who aim at our trade?
Will it not be an exertion to promote their interest by
collecting the produce of the State to particular ports,
and thereby throw it more particularly into the vortex
of Baltimore, since the operation of each town will
be confined to the river on which it is placed?
It appears to me unwise to attempt erecting more than
one great town at a time since they will fail altogether while
the exertion is beyond the means necessary to effect it.
You will inform me under the treaties which
subsist what regulations we may make that will
at least make the advantages arising from our
intercourse with those nations reciprocal.
If Spain for instance takes of her duties or makes them
lighter on any produce of these States than the other
powers with whom we are or may be connected,
they refusing us such privileges, can we and is it
consistent with the usage of nations to give her
reciprocal advantages here, the treaties between
us and each power being, as that with France, on
the principle of the right of the “most favored nation.”
I make the enquiry more for information
of the usage of nations than from any difficulty
about the usual import of the words.
Has there been any investigation at the instance of any
nation, that you can find, of the extent of the sense of these
words and of the obligations entered into under this form?
Is our tobacco restrained in its sale in the first instance
to the farmers general alone, and if this is the case,
is it not contrary to the spirit of the treaty?
Should not our ministers be instructed
to attempt its removal?
You will be so kind as to give me every information
upon these subjects you think necessary,
for perhaps my enquiries may not extend to
every object upon which I should be informed.
I beg of you also to turn my attention to those
other great objects to which in your opinion
it should be applied, for a variety of points may
arise to you when you look back on our country,
in which our policy may no doubt be much improved.
The laws prohibiting the executions for
recovery of British debts are still in force.
An address or something of that nature is made to
Congress upon that subject, desiring their sense of
the propriety of keeping them in force until satisfaction
is made for the removal of the negroes from New York.
Of this however Mr. Short will give you further information.
The day after tomorrow I set out upon
the route through the western country.
I have changed the direction and shall commence
for the westward upon the North river, by Albany &c.
I shall pass through the lakes, visit the posts,
and come down to the Ohio and thence home.
This route will necessarily take me
all the time during the recess of Congress.
Of course I shall not be able to attend the committee
of the States agreeably to engagement made between
my colleagues, and to accommodate which generally,
a resolution passed authorizing such relief to each other.
The first act of the committee was to adjourn to
the 26 since which I believe they have not met.
Mr. Short will inform you of the result of Col. Harvie’s
negotiation for me with Marks for his land.
My failure in this instance will not abate my desire to effect
a settlement in that county, it will still form one of my capital
objects and will put it in execution as soon as possible.
I had hopes of receiving a copy of your answer to the
queries of Mr. Marbois but suspect you failed in
obtaining your desire in Philadelphia.
Will you effect it in Paris upon terms
agreeable to your wishes?
I shall certainly be in Trenton on the 30th of October.
In the trip I shall take I may perhaps acquire a better
knowledge of the posts which we should occupy, the
cause of the delay of the evacuation of the British troops,
the temper of the Indians toward us, as well as of the soil,
waters and in general the natural view of the country.
Captain Denny whom we saw at Annapolis accompanies me.
I am sensible of the fatigue I shall
undergo but am resolved to sustain it.4
Monroe wrote a long letter to Jefferson on November 1
that included much writing in cypher (shown as italics):
Two days since I arrived here after performing a tour
up the north river by fort Stanwix down the wood-creek,
through the Oneida Ontario and (by the Niagara falls)
part of Lake Erie, thence back by Niagara through
the Ontario by Carlton Island through the St. Laurence
to Montreal and from Montreal over Lake Champlain
by Albany to New York again.
You find I have taken a route different from
the one I intended, as my object was to
take in my view the practicability also of a
communication from Lake Erie down the Potomac.
But from this I was dissuaded by an accident which
happened to some of the party upon Lake Erie,
with whom I came from Fort Stanwix to Niagara.
I had separated from them by accident
three days before the event.
They landed near some Indian huts (a Mr. Teller from
Schenectady with four men in a batteaux) and were fired
on by those Indians, Mr. Teller and two men killed, and a
4th wounded; the latter with the 5th made their escape.
The Indian chiefs highly reprehended the act and were,
at the earnest instigation of the gentlemen of the
British garrison, endeavoring to detect
and bring the villains to justice.
Upon advice of this disaster Col. Depeister, commanding
at Niagara, sent an Express to me just entering upon
Lake Erie advising my return, with which I complied
and took the above route to this place.
My excursion has been attended with great
personal exposure and hardship and much
greater expense than I had expected.
It has however I hope been advantageous
to me in some respects.
I have ascertained I believe with some accuracy the
different degrees of difficulty from Michilimackinac
down the grand river to Montreal, through the
Lakes to Montreal and by the north river.
The preference is at least 20 percent
in favor of the north river.
The first leisure time I have I will take the route of Fort Pitt
to lake Erie and form some estimate in that direction.
Canada, I find from individuals, thirty miles below
Cataraqui to Montreal much richer than I had expected,
although I am of opinion Lord Sheffield’s expectations
are visionary in his calculation that it will supply
the Islands with flower and lumber.
Still I think it has great resources, in those articles,
but the best timber is high up the river, which together
with the difficulty of getting it down the rapids and
through the Gulf of the St. Laurence to the West Indies
must make it an expensive trade to them,
more expensive I am told than that from the Baltic.
If I were to estimate the present, or the probable future
value of Canada to the British Dominions considered
in a commercial light and compare it with expenses
necessarily incurred if they keep up a military establishment
in supporting it, I should think Britain would act a politic
part in relinquishing it; and the not doing it satisfies me
she either has or will have other objects.
Under the bounds of the U. S. by the late treaty
the principal part of the fur trade must leave it
and run in some channel within the U. S.
The merchants established, or connected in it, the bateaux
men and other dependents will take the same course.
This will increase the expense of their government in
supplying their upper posts in Canada, as the price
of hands will be higher and the means scarcer.
In addition to these difficulties which nature has thrown
in her way others will exist under their government
to which ours will be a stranger at present.
No merchant is allowed to build vessels on the lakes
but must if he takes that course, avail himself
of those of government and this exposes them
to constant and most oppressive impositions.
Their peltries are subject to duties and preference passes
from lake Superior to Montreal; the duties may be taken
off but the preference passes cannot be prevented;
while their restraints on their trade are high, it will be
our policy to increase them in every instance wherein
they depend on us; while we give those within our bounds
great indulgences we must prohibit under high penalties
all commerce between the U.S. and Canada; prohibit their
landing or storing their goods on our side under at least
thirty percent ad valorem at the place where landed.
Canada I consider as standing upon different ground in
regard to us from any other part of the British dominions;
a free intercourse between us and the people of Canada can
in my opinion only be advantageous to them and will defeat
any political arrangement we can adopt respecting them.
By prohibiting them the participation of the advantages
which we possess we occasion them great difficulty.
Their merchants might get their goods much cheaper
up the North river than the St. Lawrence and until we permit
them to navigate on our shore from the commencement
of the Ontario they are deprived of the possibility of
navigating it except in vessels of considerable burden.
If they take the Northwest in batteaux they must go
round the lake seventy miles above Niagara,
and down the other side before they reach it,
for the passage is impracticable there.
I submit to you these observations that you may judge what
right they should have in forming a treaty of commerce.
The English ministry will I am satisfied readily agree
it shall be so framed as to exclude the U.S.
from a free intercourse with Canada.
Their jealousy will tell them to beware how they admit it
lest the sweets of those rights which we enjoy might
invite them to us; but the people of Canada will be more
sensible of our blessings by the restraints laid on them;
they will feel their own misfortunes and envy the blessings
to be attained under the protection of the federal arm.
In the meantime the acquisition of Canada is not an
object with us, we must make valuable what we have
already acquired and at the same time take such
measures as to weaken it as a British province.
As yet we have not a representation of the States
but expect it in a few days.
This will certainly be a very important
and interesting session.
In Canada I was informed that the commanding officer
had received orders not to evacuate the posts and that
many of the vessels laid aside under the provisional treaty
had again been put in commission on the lakes, a measure
said to be founded upon the supposed violation of
the treaty by New York and Virginia.
The latter in not repealing the laws prohibiting the
recovery of British debts and the former in confiscations.
But if their conduct is unauthorized,
is this the way to obtain redress.
I trust that the conduct of Congress upon this occasion
will be firm though temperate, but indeed we are
in a poor condition for war.
We may lose much but can gain nothing.
The minister of finance has arrived here
to present his commission to Congress.
Those lately appointed in his stead are too diffident,
I am told, of themselves to succeed him.
Two, I hear, have resigned; the situation is difficult,
but the road for Congress to take up appears to me
a plain one; an arrangement superseding his office
has taken place.
He must bid us farewell.
If those already appointed cannot serve,
others must be appointed in their stead.
Our Indian commissioners have quarreled with the State
of New York; the State also held a treaty with the Indians
which preceded ours; to this they took exception.
The affair will, however, easily be accommodated.
The delegations are generally the same.
Williamson is here but it is said that
Spaight will dispute his right to sit.
Pinkney in the stead of Beresford; Georgia has a Houston
and Gibbons here; the former has been to Europe to leave
behind him what little wit he had, and the latter, I believe,
never had any, or very little.
He is however a married man, and I hear well intentioned.
The court of Pennsylvania sentenced the man who
made the attack on Mr. Marbois to pay the fine of
200 dollars and to suffer two year’s imprisonment.
With this he is dissatisfied.
Will the court of France be so.
I shall write you very fully so soon as we have a Congress
and by every packet of private opportunity
and beg of you to do the same.
I have not heard from you since you left Philadelphia;
perhaps your letters to me are in Virginia if you wrote.
I reached New York 10 days after Mr. Short left.5
Monroe also wrote to James Madison on November 7 and this letter on the 15th.
You received I hope by the last post
a small cipher from me.
At Fort Stanwix you were necessarily acquainted with
the variance which had taken place between the Indian
Commissioners of the United States & those of New York
as well as of the principles upon which they respectively
acted & the extent to which they carried them:
as I reached New York about eight days after you
had left it, & the Indian Commissioners were then
on the ground & have not since made a statement
of their final transactions there.
I have nothing new to give you upon that head.
The questions which appear to me to
arise upon the subjects of variance are
1. whether these Indians are to be considered as members
of the State of New York, or whether the living simply within
the bounds of a State, in the exclusion only of a European
power, while they acknowledge no obedience to its laws
but hold a country over which they do not extend, nor
enjoy the protection nor any of the rights of citizenship
within it, is a situation which will even in the most qualified
sense, admit their being held as members of a State?
2. whether on the other hand this is not a description
of those whose management is committed by the
confederation to the U. S. in Congress assembled?
In either event the land held by these Indians, having
never been ceded either by New York or Massachusetts
belongs not to the United States; the only point then in
which New York can be reprehensible is for preceding
by a particular state treaty, the general Treaty.
This must be attributed to a suspicion that there
exists in Congress a design to injure her.
The transaction will necessarily come before us,
but will it not be most expedient in the present state
of our affairs to form no decision thereon?
I know no advantages to be derived from one.
If the general treaty has been obstructed, the injury
sustained in that instance is now without remedy.
A decision either way will neither restore the
time we have lost nor remove the impressions
which this variance has made with the Indians
& in the Court of Great Britain respecting us.
If the right of Congress has been contravened,
shall we not derive greater injury by urging it
to the reprehension of New York who holds herself
aggrieved in other respects than by suffering
our sense of that delinquency to lay dormant?
Our purchases must be made without her
bounds & those Indians whose alliance we
seek inhabit a country to which she has no claim.
Mr. Marbois is dissatisfied with the decision of the
Court of Pennsylvania in a particular affair:
his own conduct in the management of that business
previous to the decision, obtained the entire approbation
of the King of France as he is assured in a letter from
the Minister of Marine, and certainly he conducted it
in as high a tone as the Minister the most jealous of
the honor of the King of France could have done.
Since that period he has not received the orders of
his Court & in the interval hath some difficulty how to act.
If Congress go to Philadelphia he says he will be precluded
from a personal attendance or communication there.
I have considered this matter more attentively since
I saw you & think that in whatever character we hold the
man we cannot surrender him to the Court of France even
if Pennsylvania would accede to whatever we desired.
That all they have a right to expect is that he be
punished agreeably to the laws of Pennsylvania
& that if they are not adequate, others be made
for preventing the like in future, which might be
effected by a recommendation from Congress.
The variance which took place between the members
of the Committee of the States which terminated in their
abrupt dissolution by a secession on the part of some
members, is also an affair which may come before us.
But had we not also better keep this affair out of sight
& while we lament they could not in that instance be calm
& temperate, prevail on them if possible to be so in future?
But the more interesting object is the
variance between us & Great Britain.
Indeed the former derive their consequence
principally from the weight they may have
in forming her conduct with respect to us.
If they are hostilely disposed these circumstances
will tend to give them confidence.
My letter to Governor Harrison gave you
what had taken place in Canada.
I am strongly impressed with the hostile
disposition of that Court towards us.
Not only what I saw, but the information of all the
American gentlemen lately from Great Britain confirm it,
& particularly one of Maryland one of Pennsylvania,
& Mr. Laurens who is now with us.
The former two have lately returned to the continent.
We are certainly in no condition for war &,
while we preserve the honor & dignity of the
United States, must earnestly endeavor to prevent it.
If they will comply with the conditions of the late Treaty,
as we must on our part do whatever it enjoins,
our situation is as happy as we could expect it.
The sooner we are ascertained upon
this point the better it will be for us.
We must suppose they will comply with the
Treaty & surrender the Western Posts, & it is
therefore our business to make provision for
taking possession of them in the Spring.
The Minister whom we may order to that Court to
obtain an answer upon this head & cultivate its
good wishes toward us, will we trust inform us by
the Spring that the Western Posts will be given up,
& the troops whom we may raise for that purpose
will of course be applied to the garrisoning of them.
Many of the Western Posts I have seen & think 1200,
the smallest number we should think of.
But yet we have no Congress nor is the
prospect better than when I wrote you last.
All my associates are here except Grayson.
I beg of you to write me weekly & give me
your opinion upon these & every other subject
which you think worthy of attention.
A motion will certainly be made as soon as we have
a Congress for its removal hence, to which shall we
give the preference New York or Philadelphia.
We know not whom we shall
have for President of Congress.
The delegates of South Carolina think of Mr. Laurens,
but if I may venture a conjecture from what I have
observed, with respect to Mr. Laurens’s intentions
I should suppose his object was to attain the
appointment to the Court of Great Britain; the rule
heretofore adopted in the election of President will
I think be deviated from, if this should be the case,
it is not improbable Richard H. Lee may be elected.
I who holds herself aggrieved in other respects than by
suffering our sense of that delinquency to lay dormant?
Our purchases must be made without her bounds &
those Indians whose alliance we seek inhabit a
country to which she has no claim.
Mr. Marbois is dissatisfied with the decision of the
Court of Pennsylvania in a particular affair:
his own conduct in the management of that business
previous to the decision, obtained the entire approbation
of the King of France as he is assured in a letter from
the Minister of Marine, and certainly he conducted it
in as high a tone as the Minister the most jealous
of the honor of the King of France could have done.
Since that period he has not received the orders of
his Court & in the interval has some difficulty how to act.
If Congress go to Philadelphia, he says he will be precluded
from a personal attendance or communication there.
I have considered this matter more attentively since I saw
you & think that in whatever character we hold the man
we cannot surrender him to the Court of France even if
Pennsylvania would accede to whatever we desired.
That all they have a right to expect is that he be
punished agreeably to the laws of Pennsylvania
& that if they are not adequate, others be made
for preventing the like in future, which might be
effected by a recommendation from Congress.
The variance which took place between the members of
the Committee of the States which terminated in their
abrupt dissolution by a secession on the part of some
members, is also an affair which may come before us.
But had we not also better keep this affair out of sight,
& while we lament, they could not in that instance be calm
& temperate, prevail on them if possible to be so in future?
But the more interesting object is the
variance between us & Great Britain.
Indeed the former derive their consequence
principally from the weight they may have in
forming her conduct with respect to us.
If they are hostilely disposed, these circumstances
will tend to give them confidence.
My letter to Governor Harrison gave you
what had taken place in Canada.
I am strongly impressed with the hostile
disposition of that Court towards us.
Not only what I saw, but the information of all the
American gentlemen lately from Great Britain confirm it,
& particularly one of Maryland one of Pennsylvania,
& Mr. Laurens who is now with us.
The former two have lately returned to the continent.
We are certainly in no condition for war &,
while we preserve the honor & dignity of the
United States, must earnestly endeavor to prevent it.
If they will comply with the conditions of the late Treaty,
as we must on our part do whatever it enjoins,
our situation is as happy as we could expect it.
The sooner we are ascertained upon
this point the better it will be for us.
We must suppose they will comply with the Treaty &
surrender the Western Posts & it is therefore our business to
make provision for taking possession of them in the Spring.
The Minister whom we may order to that Court to
obtain an answer upon this head & cultivate its good
wishes toward us, will we trust inform us by the
Spring that the Western Posts will be given up, &
the troops whom we may raise for that purpose
will of course be applied to the garrisoning of them.
Many of the Western Posts I have seen & think 1200,
the smallest number we should think of.
But yet we have no Congress nor is the
prospect better than when I wrote you last.
All my associates are here except Grayson.
I beg of you to write me weekly & give me
your opinion upon these & every other
subject which you think worthy of attention.
A motion will certainly be made as soon as we have
a Congress for its removal hence, to which shall we
give the preference New York or Philadelphia.
We know not whom we shall have
for President of Congress.
The delegates of South Carolina think of Mr. Laurens,
but if I may venture a conjecture from what I have
observed with respect to Mr. Laurens’s intentions,
I should suppose his object was to attain the appointment
to the Court of Great Britain; the rule heretofore adopted
in the election of President will I think be deviated from,
if this should be the case, it is not improbable
Richard H. Lee may be elected.6
On 27 November 1784 Secretary of State James Madison
sent this letter of instructions to James Monroe:
Your favor of the 15th inst. Came
to hand by Thursday’s post.
Mine by the last post acknowledged your preceding one.
The umbrage given to the Commissioners of the U. S.
by the negotiations of New York with the Indians was not
altogether unknown to me, though I am less acquainted
with the circumstances of it than your letter supposes.
The Idea which I at present have of the affair leads me
to say that as far as New York may claim a right of treating
with Indians for the purchase of lands within her limits,
she has the confederation on her side; as far as she may
have exerted that right in contravention of the General
Treaty, or even unconfidentially with the Commissioners
of Congress she has violated both duty & decorum.
The federal articles give Congress the exclusive right
of managing all affairs with the Indians not members of
any State under a proviso, that the Legislative authority
of the State within its own limits be not violated.
By Indians not members of a State, must be meant those,
I conceive who do not live within the body of the Society,
or whose Persons or property form no objects of its laws.
In the case of Indians of this description
the only restraint on Congress is imposed
by the Legislative authority of the State.
If this proviso be taken in its full latitude, it must
destroy the authority of Congress altogether,
since no act of Congress within the limits of a State
can be conceived which will not in some way or
other encroach upon the authority of the States.
In order then to give some meaning to both parts
of the sentence, as a known rule of interpretation
requires, we must restrain this proviso to some
particular view of the parties.
What was this view?
My answer is that it was to save to the States
their right of preemption of lands from the Indians.
My reasons are.
1. That this was the principal right formerly exerted
by the Colonies with regard to the Indians.
2. that it was a right asserted by the laws as well
as the proceedings of all of them, and therefore
being most familiar, would be most likely to be
in contemplation of the Parties;
3. that being of most consequence to the States individually,
and least inconsistent with the general powers of Congress,
it was most likely to be made a ground of Compromise.
4. it has been always said that the proviso came from the
Virginia Delegates, who would naturally be most vigilant
over the territorial rights of their Constituents.
But whatever may be the true boundary between the
authority of Congress & that of New York or however
indiscreet the latter may have been, I join entirely
with you in thinking that temperance on the part
of the former will be the wisest policy.
I concur with you equally with regard to
the ignominious secession at Annapolis.
As Congress are too impotent to punish such offenses,
the task must finally be left to the States and experience
has shown in the case of Howell, that the interposition
of Congress against an offender instead of promoting
his chastisements, may give him a significance which
he otherwise would never arrive at and may induce
a State to patronize an act which of their own accord
they would have punished.
I am sorry to find the affair of
Mr. de Marbois taking so serious a face.
As the insult was committed within the
jurisdiction of Pennsylvania, I think you are
right in supposing the offender could not be
transferred to another jurisdiction for punishment.
The proper questions therefore are
1. whether the existing law was fully put
in force against him by Pennsylvania?
2. whether clear provision has been made
by that State against like contingencies?
Nothing seems to be more difficult under our new
Governments, than to impress on the attention of
our Legislatures a due sense of those duties
which spring from our relation to foreign nations.
Several of us have been laboring much of late in the
General Assembly here to provide for a case with which
we are every day threatened by the eagerness of our
disorderly Citizens for Spanish plunder & Spanish blood.
It has been proposed to authorize Congress whenever
satisfactory proof shall be given to them by a foreign power
of such a crime being committed by our Citizens within its
jurisdiction as by the law of Nations call for Surrender of
the Offender, & the foreign power shall actually make
the demand, that the Executive may at the instance of
Congress apprehend & deliver up the offender.
That there are offenses of that class is clearly stated
by Vattel in particular, & that the business ought to
pass through Congress is equally clear.
The proposition was a few days ago
rejected in the Committee of the whole.
Today in the report of the Committee
it has been agreed to by a small majority.
This is the most material question that
has agitated us during the week past.
The Bill for a Religious Assessment
has not been yet brought in.
Mr. Henry the father of the Scheme is gone up to his Seat
for his family & will no more sit in the House of Delegates,
a circumstance very inauspicious to his offspring.
An attempt will be made for circuit Courts, &
Mr. Jones has it in contemplation to try whether
any change has taken place in the Sentiments of
the House of Delegates on the subject of the Treaty.
He will write to you by this post & I refer
to him for what I may have omitted.7
On December 6 Monroe wrote from Trenton, New Jersey this short letter to Madison:
I enclose you a paper which will give you a state
of the representation of the States, beside which
little else has taken place worthy your attention.
Mr. Jay is here & will I understand accept the
office of foreign affairs upon condition Congress
will establish themselves at any one place.
The conduct of Spain respecting the Mississippi
& ca. requires the immediate attention of Congress.
The affair is before a Committee.
I think we shall leave this place & either remove to
Philadelphia or New York but to which is uncertain.8
Monroe wrote to Madison this letter on December 14:
I have received your favor of the 27 of November
in answer to mine of the 15th.
My last gave you the state of the representations here.
The business of importance is still before committees
or if reported not yet acted on.
It seems to be the General sense of Congress to appoint
a minister to the Court of London & to give him instructions
upon many subjects & particularly those which arise in the
conduct of both parties under the treaty but whom they
may appoint is uncertain, indeed I fear that the difficulty
of obtaining a vote for any person will obstruct this
measure for a length of time.
Franklin has through Mr. Laurens & the
Marquis La Fayette solicited permission to return home;
this will no doubt be assented to as soon as taken up.
An appointment must therefore be made in his place
to that court; I think there will be little difficulty in
obtaining it for Mr. Jefferson, for the opinion of all
the members seems to concur in the propriety of it.
The first question will be whether we shall or not
add other ministers to those in office & annex them
to the courts of London & Madrid, or depend on
those for the management of all our business in Europe.
Connecticut has I hear authorized Congress to carry
into effect the impost with the assent of 12 States only.
She has also laid a duty of 5 percent upon all goods
imported from a neighboring State.
This affects Rhode Island very sensibly.
The question must soon be decided whether this State
will accede to this measure, or the other States recede
from it for it is said New York & Georgia will join in it.
Have you been able to carry the point in favor of the
delivery of such citizens as may be guilty of the offenses
you describe, to the power, in whose territory &
against whose subjects they are committed.
This is certainly in strict conformity to the laws of nations,
but I believe not the common practice, except between
those with whom particular treaties stipulate it.
With us it will be beneficial as it must serve not only
politics but in the instance of the Indians (if the latter
are comprehended in it) very humane purposes.
I wish the same regulation could take place throughout
the union but especially on the frontier next the British.
But how are you to ascertain the fact or
what evidence would you require of it?
Or do you mean it shall operate without
the concurrence of the other States?9
Monroe on the 14th also wrote to Jefferson.
Then on December 18 Monroe wrote this longer letter to Madison:
Yours of the 4th inst. I have received.
Congress are now closely engaged in
very important business.
Reports upon our affairs with Great Britain,
Spain & our foreign affairs in general have
been presented & alternately acted on.
To adjust the points of variance
between us & the former Court.
It seems to be the general opinion that a Minister should
be sent there, that it would tend to conciliate the disposition
of either to the other, effect the settlement of those points
& avert the evils which, if things remain long in their
present state, threaten both parties, that it is more
honorable to both that they should be adjusted in one of
our capitals & that we owe that respect to the elder party.
We have had no official communications but those with
which you are already possessed on the subject.
Doc. Franklin hath through Mr. Laurens
& La Fayette desired permission to return
home which will of course be granted.
The claim of Spain to the exclusive navigation of the
Mississippi & ca. had been presented to our view
before the instructions from Virginia arrived, in a
note from Marbois covering a letter from Rondon
with the extract of a letter from Don Galvez.
Mr. Marbois assures us of the pleasure with which the
King of France will see measures taken to consolidate
& maintain a good understanding between U. S. & Spain
although the letter & the extract were from people
unknown to us still the manner in which they come
entitled them to our attention, I mean the contents.
At the same time therefore that it was thought necessary
to make a polite return to the note it seemed to be
generally agreed that measures should be taken with the
Court of Spain for the amicable settlement of those points;
and that a Minister should also be sent there.
The question then arose how shall these several
negotiations be carried on & by whom, the gentlemen
now in office or shall others be appointed.
Laurens R. R. Livingston & all those who were averse
to new appointments (the affairs with Spain being first
before us) were for evading the question, whether new
appointments should or not take place, & appointing
Mr. Jefferson immediately to the Court of Spain in
support of which they urged the particular
qualification of Mr. Jefferson for that business.
The object of the two former was readily perceived.
The two Courts of Great Britain
& France would then be open.
The first is I believe contented with his present station,
the salary of which will I think be raised & some other
matters so settled as to accommodate him, but the latter
would willingly serve the U. S. at either of those Courts.
It was therefore in opposition to this urged that for the
more permanent interests of the United States, if we
were to be represented only at two Courts it had better
be at those of France & Great Britain than any others;
that the minister stationed at each might make occasional
trips elsewhere & return, that in the magnitude of the
question & the urgency of it that of Great Britain was
the first object before us, that the regular way was to
take up the whole together; first give Franklin permission
to return & in respect to that Court supply his place,
that then the question would come regularly before us,
shall Jefferson & Adams transact our other business
with the other Courts or shall we appoint others,
that those who were averse to other appointments
would derive advantage from bringing it on in this manner,
for then each point would stand fairly on its own
ground & be determined by its expedience.
After very long debate it was carried that a minister shall
be appointed & sent to the Court of Spain instructed & ca.
The decision of the house, in the point upon which it turned
was, that he should be appointed from the Continent,
but those in office are not precluded from the vote.
They are however not in nomination.
R. R. Livingston, Governor Johnson of Maryland,
R. H. Lee & some others are.
R. H. Lee earnestly advocated the appointment of
Jefferson to the Court of Spain only in my opinion
to open those of Great Britain & France to himself
& friends among whom are R. R. Livingston & Arthur Lee.
He reprehends highly the opposition the other
Delegates made to it, talks of the superior
urgency of the affairs of Spain to us & ca.
La Fayette & Marbois assured me that Jefferson
had been well received in the Court of France &
that it was their wish he should succeed Franklin.
R. H. Lee has hitherto given all the opposition in his
power to this appointment & will continue to do it until
opposition will be vain which I think will be the case.
Arthur Lee is in the nomination for the Treasury board
by Mr. Gerry & Mr. Mercer by a delegate from Georgia.
In a late ballot Osgood had 6 votes,
Mercer 5 votes & Arthur Lee two.
Virginia votes for Mercer & seemed inclined to suffer
- Lee to retire from the public service in the opinion
it will be advantageous to the public.
It is proposed to recommend it to the States to invest
Congress with the power to regulate the commercial
intercourse of the States with other powers, without which
it is thought impracticable to comply with our engagements
in treaty or derive any advantage from them as a nation, to
regulate the duties upon imports & exports, by which if wise
regulations are adopted, we may take some share in the
carrying trade by giving privileges to our own citizens in the
exportation which may encourage the merchants of the U. S.
to employ natives as navigators as well as the merchants of
other countries to take in partnership those of the States.
To enable us further to act in concert in the measures which
may be found necessary to counteract the policy of the
powers with whom we have not treaties of commerce:
propositions to this effect are before a committee.
The regulation & revenue are separated from each other,
the latter will go to the States unless conceded to the U. S.
for particular purposes by each particular State.
As a citizen & a lawyer I am pleased with the regulation
taking place in the judicial department.10
James Monroe wrote to James Madison on 1 February 1785.
I have lately heard nothing from
you nor indeed from Richmond.
I should suspect it arose from the adjournment of the
Assembly, if I did not presume, had that event taken place,
I should have been instructed to whose care I might
address my letters for you in Fredericksburg or Richmond.
My letters to Mr. Jones have advised you of the principles
upon which our delegation acted in the questions respecting
the places of temporary & permanent residence for
Congress; more explicitly perhaps than our communications
to the Executive have done, although indeed we have
been sufficiently explicit to the Executive.
The commissioners for the Federal town are not yet elected,
arising from the urgency of more important business.
I am sorry I have it not in my power to inform you we had
already taken measures with the Courts of Spain &
Great Britain upon the subjects which arose between us.
The reports respecting each, have been frequently
acted on, without making any decisive arrangement.
That upon a letter of Mr. Laurens desiring permission
for Dr. Franklin to retire hath also been before us.
It contained a provision that a
successor be appointed in his room.
A division was called for, upon which an
amendment to the same effect was moved,
& six States against three were for it.
Thus it is upon all questions of a similar nature.
Some gentlemen wish to commit all our affairs
to be transacted at these several Courts to
the two gentlemen now in office, while we
hold that at each Court a minister is necessary.
That at the Court of France we should always be
represented, & at that of the United Netherlands until
we had paid the public debt or established funds for it.
That the nature of the business & the manner in
which it should be conducted considering our situation,
requires a particular minister at the Courts of
Great Britain & Spain at their leisure & who
might assume a tone suited to circumstances.
That two ministers are incompetent to this business
if they are to do it, at the respective Courts & that to
attempt it elsewhere will certainly fail of success,
since we have information to be depended on that
the Courts of Great Britain & Spain dislike
to treat with us elsewhere.
Upon all these points we have six States & hope
upon the arrival of Maryland or Delaware,
both of which are expected daily, to have the 7th.
The commissioners of the treasury are elected;
Gervais, Osgood & Walter Livingston are the men.
Some import communications being received lately
from our ministers abroad, it was moved that
they be referred to a committee to determine
what part should be communicated to the States.
A committee was appointed & a report made.
A few days afterwards we received a letter from
Mr. Jay containing the following paragraph:
“I have some reason to apprehend that I have come into
the office of foreign affairs, with ideas of its duties & rights
somewhat different from those which seem to be
entertained by Congress; if that should prove to be the case
I shall certainly think it my duty, either to execute it on the
plan most agreeable to them or retire from it with as much
acquiescence & respect as I accepted it with confidence
in their delicacy & gratitude for the honor they did me.”
This was also referred to a committee to whom Mr. Jay
gave (to be ingrafted in the report) in writing the
following proposition, “and that all foreign letters &
papers which may be laid before Congress should
in the first instance be restored to him.”
Whether it will be the sense of the committee to make it
a matter of right in the minister of foreign affairs to advise
Congress in the first instance upon the various subjects
of his department & preclude themselves from a previous
consideration, or will consider the offices in a different
point of view, consulting him when necessary & referring
or declining to refer to him, at pleasure, any of the
subjects before them, is yet to be determined.11
In January 1785 the Confederation Congress moved to New York City.
Monroe in New York on 6 March 1785 wrote this letter to Madison:
The arrangement in our foreign affairs
begins at length to assume some form.
Upon whatever ground they were taken up for a
considerable time, either with respect to France,
Spain or Great Britain, the same difficulties arose.
If it was moved that Dr. Franklin be permitted
agreeable to his request to retire home it was
firmly opposed by Rhode Island & Massachusetts.
If that a minister be appointed to Great Britain,
it was moved that those instructed to form
commercial treaties be instructed &c.
It was argued on the other hand that our affairs with these
courts stood on their own ground respectively and that
negotiations with each separately & at their respective
capitals would be more eligible & likely to produce success.
It was at length moved by Mr. Howell that a minister be
appointed to represent the United States at the
Court of Great Britain and carried.
Adams, R. R. Livingston & Rutledge were put in nomination.
It had been previously, with the ill-founded expectation of
facilitating this measure, moved, by Mr. Pinckney “that
the commissions to foreign ministers unless renewed by
Congress should continue in force only for three years.”
This was negatived; but being again renewed by the
mover & pressed upon Congress from other
quarters was at length carried.
Upon several ballots Adams had 5 votes, Livingston 4
& Rutledge 2, Jersey at length voted for Adams, having
previously nominated & voted for Livingston, upon
which Virginia & Maryland joined in favor
of Adams & gave him his appointment.
Mr. Smith lately an aid to the general has been
since appointed secretary to the legation.
A Mr. Trumbull of Connecticut was his only competitor.
Had this affair come on upon the first meeting of Congress
at Trenton the event must have been the same.
5 States, the 4 Eastern & Pennsylvania were decidedly
in favor of Adams in preference to any other person,
Jersey was at first disposed to commit our foreign
business to Adams & Jefferson only, and would
therefore have voted Adams to the above Court.
He would of course had the majority in Congress,
& the expedience of the measure would have
superseded any difficulties with respect to the man.
I suppose Mr. Jefferson will shortly be appointed
in the room of Dr. Franklin to the Court of France.
Carmichael writes that some person in the character
of Chargé des affairs will shortly be sent from Spain
instructed &c. so that the affairs with Spain will
sleep till we hear further on the subject.
I have received letters from Mr. Jefferson of the
10th of November & 11 of December last.
In the former he considers war between the Emperor
& the Netherlands with their respective associates
the Empress with the Emperor & France, Prussia &
the Porte with the Netherlands as unavoidable.
He considers the intermediate negotiation as an act only
of the Imperial Courts to enable them to commence the
campaign on better conditions; in the last he says the
general opinion is there will be no war but that he sees no
reason for it, except the indisposition of the Empress upon
whose health the projects of the Emperor must depend.
He believes that if it takes place England will keep
herself out of the scrape for the following reasons,
1. because she cannot borrow money to take part in it.
2. Ireland is likely to give her disturbance &
3. because her disputes with us are not settled by a full
execution of the articles of the treaty and the hatred of her
people towards us has arisen to such a height as to
prepare their minds for a recommencement of hostilities
should their government find this desirable.
“If the war takes place & the States have the direction of
their commerce upon federal principles, I should suppose,
provided we settle our affairs with Great Britain,
it will be advantageous to us.
Every diversion which it creates to the vessels of
other powers from the business of commerce
must form an additional demand for ours and
admit us gradually into the carrying trade.”
By his last letter I find that a correspondence
had taken place between our ministers & the
Duke of Dorset the, British minister at Paris,
upon the subject of a commercial treaty.
His Grace makes a previous stipulation on
the part of his court “that a minister instructed
&ca. by Congress repair to London.”
They say they are jointly authorized to treat,
that they have no objection that it shall be in London,
from which I suspect they may be there at this time.
The commission to Adams will perhaps find
him there, but this will not give him powers
singly to form a commercial treaty.
The States of Massachusetts & New York having
previously agreed upon the members to constitute
the Court entered also into a stipulation that the
place of session should be determined by a
majority of the States present in Congress.
When brought before Congress, the Delegation
of Massachusetts proposed Williamsburg &
that of New York, Wilmington.
The former had 5 votes & the latter 4.
Of course the decision agreeably to the covenant entered
into by the two States was in favor of the former.
New York was dissatisfied with the decision.
Massachusetts moved that the President forward
the letters to the gentlemen appointed, upon which
the displeasure of New York was discovered.
Mr. Williamson moved “that the decision of Congress
by 5 States under the agreement of New York &
Massachusetts under the consideration which
requires 7 in all cases except &c. was void.”
Whether the States of Massachusetts and New York had
independently of Congress the right of fixing the place
& might choose any intermediate plan, which should be
obligatory on themselves & the Union, or whether
Congress had the power of control became the question.
Whenever it came before them a decision of
the main question was always evaded by
those of order so that it was never taken.
The two States at length agreed that whatever
had been committed to the journals should
be erased which was admitted.
In this condition it remains.
It is expected they will agree to
some more northern position.12
Monroe wrote another long letter to Jefferson in France on 12 April 1785:
Since my last I have received yours of the 11th of
November and 10th of December, the former by
Col. Le Maire, from whom however I did not receive it,
although I saw him, nor until after his arrival nearly
a month, and then I believe by post from Philadelphia.
I have had the same difficulty with the
cypher but from a different cause.
The copy of that I sent by Mr. Short I left in Virginia
when I set out for the westward and have not since
been able to command it, but shall most probably
by the next post, so that whether you send me one
or not, our embarrassment will in future be at an end.
That you may read my first letter, I send you
the cypher by which it was written.
Fully impressed with the disadvantages which must
always arise to the States from a free intercourse
with Canada I proposed an instruction founded on
the principles which my letter contains, to the
ministers authorized to form the treaty with Great Britain:
the committee have reported in favor of it, but the delicacy
of our situation with that court, upon that of the posts
and other subjects, is a consideration which inclines me to
decline for the present bringing it to the view of Congress.
The restrictions on this intercourse can only be carried
into effect by possession of the posts and the more
disadvantageous to them their surrender will be,
the longer they may delay it.
I enclose you the report of a committee in favor of
a change of the first paragraph of the 9th of the articles
of confederation for the purpose of investing Congress
with almost the entire regulation of the commerce of
the Union in exclusion of the particular States.
I am inclined to think it will be best also
to postpone this for the present.
Its adoption must depend on the several Legislatures
and to carry it with them the preferable way
perhaps may be to let it stand as it now is.
It has been brought so far without a prejudice against it.
If carried farther here, prejudices will take place; at least
I fear so, and those who oppose it here will in their States.
The way then will be to present it to them in its
present state, which may be effected by
obtaining the permission of Congress for
each delegation to take copies for that purpose.
If this should be its course, I shall have time
for your answer and opinion on it.
A committee is appointed to revise and report what
alterations if any are necessary in the instructions to the
commissioners authorized to form commercial treaties.
What will be the result I know not, but the object
of the appointment was to change the principle
upon which those existing were formed.
To instruct them to make the best bargain they can
with each power, such a one as the advantages
which they respectively derive from a commercial
intercourse with us, entitle us to expect.
If the convenience and advantage of the trade of
either of these powers with us is equal, the condition
upon which it is conducted for commercial and other
national purposes, should be equal also.
The object is to connect us with each power independently
of other powers, and to extricate us from the complicated
system with which their connections with each other is
involved—a system which they well understand,
have been long accustomed to the exercise of,
and to turn to their particular advantages by
every possible means of fraud and chicane.
I doubt much the advantage of forming treaties for the
present with any of the powers with whom you are
authorized to treat (the piratical States excepted) for what
advantages can we give here in consideration of advantages
there, or rather in consideration that they remove some of
the restraints which now exist, which they do not at present
possess, or possessing that we can deprive them of.
The more I investigate this subject
the more I am confirmed in this opinion.
But all these embarrassments in the restrictions laid upon us
by other powers will I am persuaded have a good effect.
They will operate more powerfully than the utmost force of
argument could do for the strengthening our government.
From Spain we expect a Mr. Gardoqui
in quality of chargé des affaires.
All our measures with that court have of course
ceased until his arrival which is weekly expected.
Whatever we have to transact with the Court of
Great Britain is committed to Mr. Adams, the
formation of a commercial treaty only excepted.
Upon his removal from the Hague it was resolved to appoint
a minister in his room: Mr. Rutledge and Mr. R. H. Harrison,
Chief Justice of Maryland, are in nomination as is
likewise Governor Livingston of Jersey.
It is not known whether either will serve.
My first letter will advise you of our embarrassment
respecting a particular affair upon which you
wrote me as you left Philadelphia, an attention
to which falls now within your province.
It is unfortunate upon this account your
cypher would not expose it to you.
You will please write me as soon
as possible upon this subject.
You will receive instructions respecting
the piratical states of Barbary.
I fear from the information you give me they will
not obtain fully the objects which they have in view.
From what I have been able to collect here a treaty
commenced on our own ground independent of any
European power, will be most successful, since I am told
they disregard the most powerful among them as much as
they do us, and in that instance we might plead ignorance of
the presents or amount which would be acceptable to them.
It is agreed to raise 700 men for the purposes of
guarding the public stores and giving security
to the frontier settlements of the States.
At Annapolis Mr. Gerry protested against the right of
Congress to require men in time of peace;
his conduct was approved by his State and the
delegation instructed to oppose and protest upon
all occasions against the exercise of the power.
It is agreed that by requisition men cannot be raised
upon a few States or less than the whole but
under particular circumstances of some
and then under a particular modification.
It was thought in this instance necessary to have them
in the field in a short time to protect the surveyors
of the land and as this consideration superseded the
propriety of a requisition on the whole it was agreed to
recommend it to the States, most contiguous, to raise them.
The land office is not yet opened.
A report drawn principally by Col. Grayson
will be delivered in a few days.
It deviates I believe essentially from the one
at Annapolis, but in what points I cannot say
as I have not compared them together.
The object of this is to have the lands surveyed previous
to the sale, and after the survey to have the lots drawn
for in the right of the States and sold in each by the
Loan officer at public vendue for specie or certificates.
I shall transmit you the journals of
Congress as far as they are printed.
They will give you at least the resolutions which
determine the erection of buildings at the falls of
the Delaware and our intermediate residence here.
Our dependence for their erection at Georgetown
had been on the southern States and as soon as
Congress convened we found they had given it up.
All further opposition we therefore considered as useless.
One hundred thousand dollars are appropriated to it.
Between Philadelphia and this place we were indifferent
as a temporary residence; we considered our State as
no otherwise interested than as it might respect the
delegates attending in Congress; upon federal
principles that this should have the preference.
It must have a good appearance for the federal
government to pay attention to the part which has suffered
most, from the depredations of the war; add to this the
province of Canada in possession at present of the fur-trade.
The first exertion of the States must be to draw it thence
and afterwards it may take its direction through the
Potomac or whatever channel is opened to it.
But the 100,000 dollars are upon no fund.
Whether they are to be required from
the States or not will become the question.
It would be fortunate if a delay could take place.
The conduct of our delegation at Trenton was founded upon
an acquiescence with the voice of the majority of the Union.
We acted together and voted unanimously
upon every point respecting these measures.
Grayson only was absent.
Be the event of this town as it may, I think the proportion
which will fall to our State will be well disposed of if it
annexes the Idea of stability to our councils and measures.
I could wish no more movements
until we take our final position.
I send you this by Col. Smith,
Secretary to the legation for London.
Mr. Trumbull only was his competitor.
He was formerly an aid de camp to General Washington.
He is desirous of being known to you, and as I hear
from every person who knows him a fair and
respectable character, I take the liberty to present
these circumstances in his favor to your knowledge.
Be assured I shall pay particular attention to that
circumstance which is more personally interesting
to yourself mentioned in your first letter.
What can or will be done is uncertain but satisfied
of the justice of the measure, I shall with the
utmost pleasure seek the attainment of it in a
manner which will be most delicate and honorable to you.
Indeed I think that our ministers should have
at least 5 or 600 £ stirling more annually.
I thank you for subscribing for me for the Encyclopedia.
I have not at present the money
but will send it as soon as possible.
I sincerely wish it were in my power to
join you this summer but it is impossible.
The next I have it in contemplation and shall then be under
no necessity to hurry myself so quickly back, and I could
wish to remain in Europe if I ever visit at least 12 months.
Col. Smith has my instructions not to send this by post,
but some safe hand provided he does not deliver it himself.
Whether Congress will or not adjourn
during the summer is uncertain.
I think they should not, but the fact is
our application to business has been so close
during the winter that we wish a relaxation.
I think Congress should sit until our affairs with every
foreign power were finally and most amicably settled,
and until the commerce of the Union
was properly regulated.
The Confederacy might then stand secure
and not be exposed to injury or danger.
Mr. Butler, Walcot and A. Lee were on the Indian treaty
at Fort Stanwix; the State of New York also held a treaty.
They quarreled with the commissioners
of New York and disgusted the State.
This is attributed to one of those gentlemen only.
Mr. Mercer has been absent since we left
Trenton and has married Miss Sprigg.
Mr. Read has been less active than at Annapolis.
He is said to be engaged to K. Vanhorne of this place.
He left this for South Carolina 2 months since;
it is said to prepare matters for this event.
A Mr. Carbonneau from the Kaskaskias petitioned
Congress to take the people under their protection;
a committee has reported which is so far adopted
that a commissioner be appointed to
repair thither instructed &c.
Mr. A. Lee is in nomination.
The three commissioners of the treasury elected at
Annapolis declined serving, in consequence of which
Gervais Osgood and a Walter Livingston were elected.
Gervais has declined, and Mr. A. Lee, who has upon every
occasion been a candidate, is again in nomination.
Mercer and himself were in nomination at Trenton,
and we gave the former the preference.
The fact is we can get none better than Mr. Arthur Lee
and shall upon this occasion vote for him.
Your letters still contain doubts of the event
of the interfering claims between the
Emperor and the Netherlands.
Mr. V. Berkel has presented a full and able statement
of those of the United Netherlands and of the progress
of either party to the commencement of the winter
in support of their pretensions.
A war between them cannot be injurious to us,
provided our merchants have enterprise.
As we stand on neutral ground, they may turn it
to theirs and the general advantage.
Believe me to be, dear Sir,
your affectionate friend & servant,
Jas. Monroe
P.S. The alteration which this report proposes
in the whole system of our government will be great.
It is in fact a radical change of it.
I beg of you to write your sentiments fully on it.
If it is carried, it can only be by thorough
investigation and a conviction carried to
the minds of every citizen that it is right.
The slower it moves on therefore
in my opinion the better.13
Monroe wrote a fairly long letter to James Madison
and then this short letter to John Jay on June 2:
The enclosed Letter will inform you that one
and perhaps more of our Citizens are still held in Captivity
in different quarters of the Globe by the Commandants
of Vessels and others without the authority of
the King or Ministers of Great Britain.
Will it be necessary to give an instruction to the minister
of the United States at London upon this Head
similar to the one enclosed, or may it not be effected
without any Act of Congress by your communication only?
If the former should be your opinion had it better
originate with Congress than yourself?
I should suppose that you might effect it
and induce the application of Mr. Adams
under the Treaty without any act of Congress.
I submit it, however, to you and should be glad
of your opinion as soon as convenient.14
Monroe helped write a long report on trade with a committee in the Congress,
and from New York he sent a copy to Jefferson with the letter he wrote on 16 June 1785.
He also included a detailed report from the Reports of Committees for Increasing
the Powers of Congress by Recommendations to the States in the Department of State.
On July 12 Monroe sent printed journals to Madison with his letter:
I enclose a copy of the journals so far as they are printed.
They contain nothing you will find respecting the
requisition nor the commercial interests of the Union.
The former upon the report of a committee has been
frequently before Congress of late and as often
recommitted, in which state it now lies.
As the principal part of the debt which in other States
forms a part of the present estimate, for the payment
of whose interest the requisition is in that degree made,
contracted by Quarter Masters, commissaries &c. with
individuals in the liquidation whereof the commissioners
of the U S. with those of each State are now engaged was
contracted in ours by State impressments and of course
considered and provided for as a State debt, we thought it
our duty to propose “that in all cases wherein claims of
individuals by payment of the principal or other satisfactory
compensation have been transferred to the States of which
they are citizens, the said States shall be considered as
standing in the place of the individuals and entitled to all the
benefits which would otherwise have belonged to them.”
Two thirds of the amount required will be necessary to
discharge the interest upon the domestic debt, & this may
be so modified in the collection as to admit certificates
of interest in discount upon the liquidated debt.
Our object therefore was to extend this facility to the State
to obtain for her a discount of so much as she paid to her
citizens of those debts due them by the United States, and
thereby prevent the payment of double her proportion,
for the discharge of similar debts within other states
while she was exhausted by making it to her own citizens.
To complete the facility to the States whose accounts
were unliquidated, we also proposed, “that for that
reason and as each State supposed she had advanced
her federal quota and requisitions upon a contrary
principle, until they should be liquidated, might be
injurious to those with whom it should be the case,
so far as they applied to the domestic debt that the
requisitions might be so modified in their collection
as that the States might pay in their quotas in
either the principal or interest of such
accounts as should be liquidated.”
We presumed the United States would be benefited
by a State’s availing itself of this facility, as it must
always be the interest of the debtor to diminish the
principal in preference to the interest of a debt where
the engagement is not to pay interest upon interest.
Lastly we proposed “that dollars should be deducted
out of the requisition in payment of that amount
of the advances of the State for the expedition
to the Kaskaskias &ca.”
These propositions were not received
in the most favorable manner.
As to the first they said “that the assumption on the part
of the State & payment to its own citizens of the debts
due by the U S. were voluntary acts, that such advances
therefore must be considered as State-advances and to be
taken into consideration upon the final liquidation of State
accounts when the advances of all the States and their
respective quotas were ascertained and apportioned.
That these advances also were in discharge of specific
requisitions to which the State had given its assent
in a motion by her delegates when the detachment
of Wayne was marching southwards.”
We answered that the failure in specific requisitions
(and we would grant we had absolutely failed which
however was not the case) was like failures in all other
requisitions, that if we paid less in that than other States
we had exceeded in equal degree in other instances, that
these payments or failures under requisitions stood on the
same ground & were to be settled on the same principles:
that the resolution respecting Wayne was confined only to
the troops under his command and until he should reach
the Marquis of La Fayette, or if extended to all the regular
troops then in the State or during the campaign it had no
connection with the Militia and State impressments for
militia & regular troops; or if extended to the whole in either
instance and until the payment of the whole requisition,
for the extra-advance there should be some consideration.
In opposition to the 2nd proposition it was urged
“that here is the estimate of the public debt for the
payment of whose interest a requisition is to be made;
how can the interest be paid upon the estimate when
the money necessary for it is to be applied to the
discharge of the principal in some of the States.”
Upon the 3rd proposition we had previously taken the sense
of Congress but we thought proper to bring it again to their
view that we might know what they intended doing in it.
They were all three committed after several days
debate & the opinion of the committee being
against them after a few days obtained a discharge.
The report of the requisition will
probably be brought in today.
All the States eastward of Pennsylvania inclusive are
interested in keeping up the present estimate and
regulating the collection of the sums called for
so as to pay the interest of it and of it alone.
In vain it is argued that it is not founded on the true state
of the domestic debt and therefore improper & oppressive.
That until the liquidation takes place it
should be accommodated as much as
possible to the convenience of the States.
That it cannot be expected while some of the States fail
altogether & present at the same time an asylum to those
who fly from the duties of government that others will
continue to harass their citizens in making payments.
I intended saying something upon the commercial
subject but have not time.
Don Diego de Gardoqui has arrived
& been presented to Congress.
He presented a letter of credence from the King
& has full powers to treat upon the subject of
the disputed boundary &ca.
Yet he is styled Encargado de negotios, in consequence
of the character of our minister at Madrid.
We take his style from his letter of credence & call him
Encargado de negotios—He is a polite & sensible man.
I have inquired into the report of the commissioners
of Georgia to treat with those of Spain & find it has
arisen from the application of a vain old man to the
Georgia Legislature who received for answer
“they would attend to it in good time” returning
home under an impression his affairs were in a
good way & gave those he conferred with reason
to believe he was authorized to treat.
This the Delegates of that State suppose to be the case.
Your several letters to Mr. Jefferson I have regularly
forwarded in the packets as I have received them.
I am, dear Sir, very respectfully your friend & servant.
Jas: Monroe
P. S. What say you to a trip to the Indian Treaty to
be held on the Ohio—sometime in August or September.
I have thoughts of it & should be happy in your company.
We might meet somewhere on the way—or perhaps
you have thoughts of a trip this way—packets sail every
week eastward to Rhode Island & Boston—a stage is also
established to Lake George & the communication over
Lake Champlain to Montreal and Quebec easy & expeditious.
Agreeable company may be found either way.15
James Monroe was a delegate in Congress from Virginia during
the Confederation from November 1783 to November 1786.
James Monroe married Elizabeth Kortright on 16 February 1786.
After their brief honeymoon on Long Island, the couple moved into the Kortright house.
They would have three children.
Monroe wrote in a letter to Madison on March 19:
I enclose you a copy of Mr. Jay’s publication
of the correspondence between him &
Mr. Littlepage revised and corrected.
It may furnish some matter of entertainment.
Jersey having taken into consideration the late requisition,
the house of delegates resolved that having entered into
the confederation upon terms highly disadvantageous to
that State from the necessity of public affairs at the time,
& a confidence that those points in which they were
aggrieved would be remedied & finding this was not the
case & a compact founded in such unequal principles likely,
by this acquiescence to be fettered on them, they would
not therefore comply with the same until their grievances
were redressed; in the course of their reasoning they
mention the failure of some States to comply with the
impost & seem to rest themselves on that ground in
such a manner as to intimate that if they should comply
their objections would be nearly removed.
This resolution being brought before
Congress gave great uneasiness.
It is to be observed that here is no express act
of the Legislature but merely the negative of
a proposition to comply with the requisition
in the branch with whom it should originate.
They therefore are in a less direct opposition to the
confederation than if it were the act of the legislature—
but being in a high degree reprehensible Congress
resolved that a committee be appointed to attend
the legislature & endeavor to prevail on them to
rescind the resolution & accede to the measure.
The Committee were Pinckney, Gorham & Grayson;
they left us immediately & have not since returned.
We have in the papers an act stated to be of
Rhode Island passing the impost in the full
latitude recommended by Congress.
It is believed to be the case—in that event this
State (New York) will most probably pass it also.
It is also said that Georgia has passed it.
A report urging in very pointed terms a compliance with the
recommendation for changing as therein proposed the 8th
of the articles of confederation is before Congress.
It will most probably pass although some gentlemen
in the Eastern States would willingly throw it aside.
The better disposed & better informed are aware of
the impolicy of an opposition to it even if injurious to
those States (which is not admitted) while they seek
a more important alteration in the extension of the
powers of Congress in the regulation of trade.16
Monroe returned to the Congress, and as chairman of a committee
on 10 May 1786 they presented a Plan of a Temporary Government for the
Western States with a General Assembly that included the Governor and Council
and a House of Representatives where all laws would originate.
Chairman Monroe, Rufus King, and Charles Petit of Pennsylvania
planned to review the proposed treaty with John Jay on June 1.
Monroe’s letter to Madison on 31 May 1786
was concerned about John Jay’s diplomacy:
Since my last a letter has been received from
Mr. Jay to the following effect “that difficulties
had taken place in his negotiation with Gardoqui
& requesting that a Committee be appointed with
power to direct & control that negotiation.”
It was immediately perceived that the object was to
relieve him from the instruction respecting Mississippi
& to get a committee to cover the measure.
That this would be thus brought forward I was apprized
upon my first arrival here in the winter, & have been
acquainted with all the previous arrangements,
those in favor of it found necessary to make, to prepare
for its reception—his plan is, from evidence conclusive
on my own mind; not to be simply quiet as to that object
but to enter into engagements, at least for a certain term,
for its occlusion & further to enter into a reciprocal
guaranty of their respective possessions in America;
in consideration for which we are to be admitted
reciprocally, they into our ports here & we into theirs
in Europe, upon an equal footing with our
citizens & subjects respectively.
What we are to gain on our part then simply is,
the aid of this power in favor of the posts
& this commercial stipulation.
When the letter was presented Mr. King who is associated
in this business in a long speech in which he took a view of
the insidious designs of France in the late treaty especially,
& of the little dependence to be put on her in future,
made a trial of the pulse of the house on the subject.
The letter was committed, Petit, King & myself are
of the committee—as yet the Committee have not met;
tomorrow they will.
Jay will attend it.
From the best investigation that I have been able to give
the subject I am of opinion that it will be for the benefit
of the U. S. that the river should be opened that although
we may not be in a situation, nor even think of it for the
present, to contest it, yet if we entered into engagements
to the contrary, we separate those people I mean all
those westward of the mountains from the federal
government & perhaps throw them into the hands
eventually of a foreign power.
That under the direction of Congress the produce of
that country will be in trade the source of great
national wealth & strength to the U S.
That a reciprocal guaranty stipulates an important
consideration to them without a return.
That whether it may not tend to weaken the
connection between us & France is doubtful.
That the commercial engagement will operate upon
its own merits only to the disadvantage of the U S.
I remember upon a former occasion, unconnected
with objects & considerations of this kind to have
remarked to you—after the public debt is paid
(& if the western land is properly disposed of,
great part of it will be paid shortly) the situation of
these States will be such as to make it unnecessary
for them to lay such duties on the trade of their
citizens as the expensive civil & military
establishments of the European countries will require.
The duties of our citizens & their subjects in our respective
ports will of course be unequal, ours depressed with the
weight of their government & theirs entitled to all the
benefits which arise from our ease & happy situation.
If we knew precisely the duties imposed on our
trade by our citizens in their ports, we might
put their subjects on equal footing here.
The indulgence then given to our people in our ports
arising from the ease of our circumstances, superior to
that which the subjects of other countries can possibly
obtain, would be a manifest advantage which might
enable them to improve their circumstances.
Tobacco I am also informed is to be excluded from
the benefit (if it can be termed such) of this treaty.
I am clearly of opinion that Spain is of all the
powers of Europe the most in our hands.
That for a guaranty we might obtain not only the
points in contest but whatever else we wished.
But such is the folly of our councils & the vice of those
who govern them in many instances, that the real
blessings of our situation in those few cases which exist,
cannot be turned to any public advantage.
Petit who is always here & the influential man from
Pennsylvania is a speculator in certificates.
He came forward under the patronage of Reid with
impressions entirely Eastern and the opposition given
the requisition last year by the delegation of Virginia
has given him an opinion that she wishes
to defraud the public creditors.
The evidence of her payments, of passing the
requisition upon terms unfavorable to her, of her
honest & federal attachments, are no proof to him.
He always acts under this impression & the utmost
prudence, good temper (personally), and assurance
on the part of the delegation cannot remove it.
His State therefore can generally be calculated
on in favor of all the measures of Massachusetts,
who is always zealous upon all subjects of
old emission money, public securities &ca.
She always has some influence with Delaware & Jersey;
King hath married a woman of fortune in New York
so that if he secures a market for fish and turns
the commerce of the western country down
this river he obtains his object.
We have not as yet brought on the claims
of the State; we shall do it in a few days.
I am thoroughly satisfied they will be rejected—
all the expenses of Lord Dunmore’s expedition
although precisely on the same footing with the first
campaign at Boston will be thrown on the State.
Yet Mass: has (& did in the close of that campaign)
draw money to defray its expenses.
It appears to me as if the State debt would never be settled
and if it is, upon terms highly disadvantageous to us.
That the certificate debt will be pressed only until by
the operation of the facility system most of the securities
are moved southward, after which it will be given up.
We shall however bring the subject on shortly, and upon
the fairest principles for the State, in the event of a
decision against her, put her pretensions on the journals.
Many of these questions you will observe
are as important as they are intricate.
That to a wise decision as to the expedience, the greatest
industry & ability in their management will be necessary.
I must confess I have little hope that they will take a
direction agreeably to my own impressions of propriety.
One great advantage is, that the delegation are in general
in sentiment, & act together—but there are such powerful
combinations against us, supported by & founded in
considerations of private interest, that I almost despair.
What effect these measures may have, especially in the
instances of the tobacco & our accounts,
upon the State I cannot determine.
Whether they may extend their influence to other objects
than those they particularly affect, is uncertain;
fully persuaded however I am that they will give arguments
to those opposed to an extension of federal powers of
greater weight than any they have had before.
I most sincerely wish you may come up and that
if you shall not be able, you will give me your
sentiments fully on these subjects.17
Monroe wrote a long letter to Governor Patrick Henry on August 12,
and this was the long P. S.:
The object in the occlusion of the Mississippi on the part of
these people so far as it is extended to the interest of their
States (for those of a private kind gave to it) is to break up
so far as this will do it, the settlements on the western
waters, prevent any in future, and thereby keep the States
southward as they now are—or if settlements will take
place, that they shall be on such principles as to make it the
interest of the people to separate from the Confederacy,
so as effectually to exclude any new State from it.
To throw the weight of population eastward
& keep it there, to appreciate the vacant
lands of New York & Massachusetts.
In short, it is a system of policy which has for its object
the keeping the weight of government & population in
this quarter, & is prepared by a set of men so flagitious,
unprincipled & determined in their pursuits, as to
satisfy me beyond a doubt they have extended
their views to the dismemberment of the government
& resolved either, that sooner than fail it shall be the case,
or being only desirous of that event have adopted
this as the necessary means of effecting it.
In conversation at which I have been present, the Eastern
people talk of a dismemberment so as to include
Pennsylvania (in favor of which I believe the present
delegation Petit & Bayard who are under the influence of
eastern politics would be) & sometimes all the states south
to the Potomac—Although a dismemberment should be
avoided by all the states and the conduct of wise &
temperate men should have in view to prevent it, yet I do
consider it as necessary on our part to contemplate it as an
event which may possibly happen & for which we should be
guarded—a dismemberment which would throw too much
strength into the Eastern Division should be prevented.
I should be so managed, (if it takes place) either that it
should be formed into three divisions, or if into two, that
Pennsylvania if not Jersey should be included in ours.
Be assured as to all the subjects upon which
I have given you information above, it has been
founded on authentic documents.
I trust these intrigues are confined to a few only,
but by these men I am assured are not; whatever
anxiety they may give you I am persuaded it
cannot be greater than that which I have felt.18
On 14 August 1786 Monroe wrote this concise letter to James Madison:
It has occurred to William Grayson & myself to
propose to Congress that negotiations be carried
on with Spain upon the following principles:
1. that exports be admitted through the Mississippi
to some free port perhaps New Orleans, to pay there
a toll to Spain of about 3 percent ad valorem & to be
carried thence under the regulations of Congress
2. that imports shall pass into the western country
through the ports of the U. S. only.
3. that this sacrifice be given up to obtain
in other respects a beneficial treaty.
I beg of you to give me your opinion on it.
It is manifest here that Jay & his party in Congress are
determined to pursue this business as far as possible,
either as the means of throwing the western people
& territory without the Government of the U. S.
and keeping the weight of population & government here,
or of dismembering the government itself
for the purpose of a separate confederacy.
There can be no other object than one of these,
& I am from such evidence as I have,
doubtful which has the influence.
I write in Congress & therefore am deprived of the
advantage of the cypher, but am so desirous of your
sentiments as to risk mine without that cover.19
Then Monroe wrote this long letter with some of it
in code to Jefferson on 19 August 1786:
My last advised you of the
progress of Spanish negotiation.
Until that time the reference of Jay’s letter to a committee
was, I believe, the point at which it rested; but to enable
you to form a satisfactory opinion of the object of that
letter I transcribe the only operative paragraph in it—
“I take the liberty therefore of submitting to the
consideration of Congress whether it might not
be advisable to appoint a committee with power
to instruct and direct me on every point and
subject relative to the proposed treaty with Spain.”
You are to observe his only ultimatum were respecting the
Mississippi and the boundaries; the committee, consisting
of a member from Massachusetts, Petit, and myself,
kept it about two months and at length two of them
reported that they be discharged, the letter referred to
a committee of the whole and himself ordered to attend.
It was agreed to with this alteration that he attend
Congress to explain the difficulties stated in his letter
and to lay before them a state of the negotiation.
He accordingly came and being aware objections would
be made to his entering into debate, produced a long
written speech which he read by virtue of his office
and which was in substance as follows.
France against our right of the navigation of
the Mississippi and, in case of a variance with
Spain upon that point, against us.
Well to be on good terms with Spain therefore on that
account as well as to avail ourselves of her influence
in the councils of Portugal, the Italian States and the
Barbary Powers, as also in those of France herself.
That Great Britain would rejoice to see us at variance
with Spain, and therefore would foment dissentions
between us that in case this treaty failed, Spain,
mortified and disappointed in the eyes of all Europe
would enter into engagements with Britain
(or in resentment) so as to exclude us from her ports.
For these reasons and fully to obtain the confidence
and good wishes of that power, as also her good
services in the lines aforesaid, he thought it wise
to forebear the use of the navigation of Mississippi
for twenty-five years or thirty, if necessary, as
a condition to obtain at the same time the following
liberal articles as the basis of a commercial treaty.—
1. All commercial regulations shall be reciprocal,
Spanish merchants in the ports of America and American
merchants in those of Spain and the Canaries to have
the rights of native merchants of the two countries.
2. To establish consuls in their respective countries.
3. The bona fide manufactures and productions of both
parties, tobacco excepted, to be admitted in the ports
aforesaid in the vessels of both parties upon the same
footing as if they were their own manufactures and
productions; and further that all such duties and imposts
as may mutually be thought necessary to lay on them
by either party shall be regulated on principles of
exact reciprocity by a tariff to be formed within
one year after the ratification of this treaty, and
in the meantime they shall severally pay in the
ports of each other those of natives only.
4. Masts and timber for the navy to be bought,
provided they be as cheap as in other countries.
This was the amount of his communications as to the project
which he urged our adopting by all the arguments he could
think of, such as, we cannot obtain the use, and therefore
of no consequence; we must now decide; must terminate in
accommodation, war, or disgrace, the last the worst, the
second unprepared for, the first the preferable course—
that we should avail ourselves of the
moment or Britain would; therefore no
time to lose with others of the same kind.
This subject has, since the above communication,
engaged the attention of Congress for ten days past.
The delegates of Massachusetts who are his instruments
on the floor moved in committee to repeal his ultimatum
with a view of suffering him to proceed at pleasure,
and upon this point has the debate turned.
It has been manifest they have had
throughout seven states and we five.
They, to Pennsylvania inclusive, and Delaware
being absent, the rest against him.
We deny the right in seven states to alter an instruction
so as to make it a new one but they will proceed,
be that as it may, the treaty in that event be
formed and soon presented for ratification.
To prevent this we have told them we would give
notice to the secretary of the incompetency of his
powers as also to the resident of Spain to justify
Congress in refusing to ratify, if they should choose it.
In this state it remained without any new
proposition until yesterday, being Friday.
We stated however in the close of the day that we would
agree that a treaty be formed upon the following conditions.
That exports be admitted through the Mississippi,
paying at New Orleans a duty of two and half
percent ad valorem to Spain, to be carried thence
in Spanish American and French bottoms.
That imports be prohibited in that line.
If this should be adopted we propose to change the scene
of negotiation and to carry it to Madrid, to take it out of
the present and put it into yours and Adams’s hands.
We fear however and with too much
reason that this will fail.
Nothing could have been more unfortunate
than even the agitation of this subject.
It has lessened the ground on which we stood
and given Spain hopes she had no reason to calculate on.
What prospects to the general interest might be
calculated on as resulting from the deliberations
of the convention at Annapolis must be diminished.
In short the measure strikes me
as every way highly injurious.
I am sorry to inform you that our affairs are daily
falling into a worse situation, arising more from
the intrigues of designing men than any real
defect in our system or distress of our affairs.
The same party who advocate this business have
certainly held in this city committees for dismembering
the confederacy and throwing the states eastward
the Hudson into one government.
As yet this business has not gone far but that
there should be a party in its favor, and a man,
heretofore so well respected but in my opinion
so little known, engaged in it is to me very alarming.
Congress have again required money for the
ensuing year, including that part of the principal
of the foreign loans that becomes due in that time.
All the States except New York and Pennsylvania
have acceded to the impost to the acceptation of
Congress, the former hath granted the revenues
accruing from it but hath not made the collectors
so amenable to Congress as the system requires
and the other states have done; and Pennsylvania
has granted the impost but suspended its operation until
all the states shall have granted the supplemental funds.
A committee is appointed to attend the legislature of
Pennsylvania on this subject, and recommendation
passed to the Executive of New York to convene the
legislature to take the said system again into consideration.
They meet in the usual term in the fall
or commencement of the winter.
They have passed an ordinance regulating the coin.
I have been apprised of the arrival of the Encyclopedie
at Baltimore upon the cover of a letter addressed
from Mr. Mazzei, forwarded thence here,
but have not heard in whose ship or under
whose care it is except from your letter.
I have since my last received yours of the 10 of May.
Your late communications on the commercial subject
have given great satisfaction to Congress.
We hope the monopoly of our tobacco in hands
of the farmers general will ultimately be abolished.
The services of Monsieur La Fayette are
acknowledged with gratitude by Congress.
I shall leave this after the first of October
for Virginia, Fredericksburg.
Believe me I have not relinquished
the prospect of being your neighbor.
The house for which I have requested a plan
may possibly be erected near Monticello.
To fix there and to have yourself in particular with what
friends we may collect around for society is my chief object,
or rather the only one which promises to me with the
connection I have formed real and substantial pleasure,
if indeed by the name of pleasure it may be called.20
Monroe then wrote a short letter to Madison on August 30.
Monroe wrote five letters to Madison in September 1786.
This is the one he wrote from Philadelphia on September 12:
I arrived here a few days since to press on the
legislature of this State a separation of the impost
from the supplementary funds.
I have the most satisfactory evidence
they will reject the proposition.
We proceed therefore further merely to discharge our duty.
Both parties are united in opposition to it.
Tomorrow we shall be received by the legislature.
I am sorry I came on the business.
Before this you have received my letters informing
of the subsequent progress & final close of the business
which lately engaged us in Congress;
or rather so far as it depended on their direction.
By agreement nothing was to be done in it until our return.
I expect to set out back in a day or two.
It will depend much on the opinion of Jersey & Pennsylvania
as to the movements of Jay, and that of Jersey much on
that of Mr. Clark now with you at Annapolis.
He put Hornblower in Congress & may turn him out again,
for he has no positive weight of his own.
Clark has always been anxious for
taking the western lands from us.
I should suppose him inclined to turn it to the best account.
I conclude therefore that if he knows the delegation,
especially his part of it, pursue a system of policy
so contrary to his own, & to what is in effect the
interest of his country, he would dismiss Mr. Hornblower.
Perhaps you may be able to hint to Mr. Clark
that Jersey except Symes was with the
eastern States upon this occasion.
Mr. Henry of the Maryland delegation has
referred Mr. Stone to you for information
upon this subject by my request.
Mr. Stone is my friend and a very upright sensible man.
You will show him what part of my letters
you find necessary.
The ablest men here believe & act on it, in the rejection
of the proposition, that the refusal to separate the 2 parts
of the system endangers the government, and that it will
most probably induce a change of some kind or other.
It is well for the southern States to act with great
circumspection & to be prepared for every possible event—
to stand well with the middle states especially.
I sincerely wish you to suffer no anxiety and to
put yourself to no inconvenience upon our private affair.
I have no occasion for the money until about the
5th or 10th of October to help to remove me to Virginia,
and even then it will be in my power to do without it,
with tolerable convenience, if you should find it
inconvenient to command it.
Believe me it will put me to no inconvenience.
My engagements are but few & those within my control.
Let me hear from you as often as possible.21
On 12 October 1786 James Monroe sent this
report of progress to Jefferson in France:
Since my last I have received yours of the 9 of July.
I advised you therein of the progress that had been made
by Mister Jay in the Spanish negotiation, that he had brought
a project before Congress for shutting the Mississippi and
not for opening it for the term of twenty-five or thirty years
combined with some commercial stipulations, the latter
to be the price of the former, although admitted they
opened no new port nor admitted us into those now
open upon better terms than those we now enjoyed.
Since this project was presented, the negotiation has been
more with Congress to repeal the ultimatum than
with Spain to carry the instructions into effect.
I informed you of the proposition from Massachusetts
for the repeal in Committee of the Whole.
This was carried by Pennsylvania inclusive eastward,
Maryland inclusive southward being against it.
Delaware was absent.
In the house we moved to postpone the
report of the Committee in order to take
up propositions to the following effect.
That the negotiation as to the Mississippi and
the boundaries be taken out of the hands of
the Secretary and committed to Carmichael.
The following points to be agreed on there
and afterwards concluded here.
1st. that New Orleans be made an entrepot for exports,
that they be shipped thence in the bottoms of America,
Spain and France under the regulations of each party.
2nd. That they pay at said port a duty of
2½ per cent ad valorem to the crown of Spain
as a compensation for port duties.
3rd. That imports be prohibited.
4th. That the instructions of Annapolis be revived
as the basis of a treaty of commerce.
5th. That two additional commissioners be appointed with
equal powers with the secretary to conclude the same.
Upon this there was precisely the same division.
The question was then taken on the report
and carried by 7 states.
Upon this the following proposition was moved,
“is the repeal constitutionally carried by 7 states
so as to give a new instruction materially different
from the former” and set aside by the previous question.
We are told he will proceed,
but of this have no certain information.
It is extraordinary he should have taken up the subject
of trade, as powers upon principles that applied to all
nations alike had already been given under a commission
which had at the time his were, near one year to run to
form a treaty with Spain, which were not repealed by these
nor the subject mentioned except by a distant implication.
I do suspect the business rests for the present until the
new Delegates take their seats, in which case
he will be governed by circumstances.
I suspect the point will ultimately be carried,
but this is yet doubtful.
I forgot above to mention the negotiation was to have been
carried on in our propositions under the mediation of France.
I set out tomorrow for Virginia with Mrs. Monroe by land.
My residence will be for the present in Fredericksburg.
My attention is turned to Albemarle for my ultimate abode.
The sooner I fix there the more agreeable it will be to me.
I should be happy to keep clear of the bar if possible
and at present I am wearied with the business
in which I have been engaged.
It has been a year of excessive labor
and fatigue and unprofitably so.
What you find in the journals, especially the regulation
of the coin, passed upon the report of the Board of Treasury
without examination or with very little.
Our minds were generally at the time otherwise engaged.
Mr. Madison and myself have been desirous if possible
of forming an engagement for land in this State
which would hereafter put us at ease.
He promised me to advise you of it,
and to tell you of our little plan.
If it were an object with you to your property in my
estimation a better opportunity cannot present itself.
I shall write you more fully on my arrival home on many
public affairs, which at present I have not leisure for.
Tell Short he has the friendship of the delegation
and always will have it.
No appointment of secretary of legation will take place
to that court, and if one did he would have
the good wishes of our State.22
In November 1786 the Monroe family moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia
where he had already started practicing law.